Recuperative Breaks

Crete For Life is a charity that organises residential breaks for children and young people in need, aged 7 to 18 years old and who are free from chronic serious illness, with the purpose to provide the children with fun, creative and challenging activities, in a safe, secure and medically supervised environment. It wants to be a place where a child or young person feels secure and comfortable and can build on some happy memories by the Cretan sea. The children and young adults we host also achieve a sense of independence through living away from their home place and experiencing a different culture. With this renewed confidence we hope they may be more able to face the challenges of their own lives.

The groups are composed of at least 10 children accompanied by two guardians, a translator and a minder. During the recuperative holiday, we make sure that the children enjoy the wonderful local produce, fish, olive oil, fresh fruit and vegetables, and benefit from the celebrated Mediterranean diet, to compensate for the poor and contaminated food that constitute their daily diet.

Supervisors and volunteers organize weekly activities like, swimming lessons, art and crafts, organized games, English and Greek language lessons, cooking, singing and Cretan dancing. Many activities are open and welcome the participation of local children from the area. At Crete For Life, we have experience with children, both personally and professionally. Among our members, there are teachers, pediatricians, and young professionals who have worked in holiday camps in Europe and North America. We also have members who have previously worked for non profit associations.

Since the early 1990's many Belarus children have been on recuperative holidays abroad, and programs similar to ours are well known to parents and teachers. Most children we host come from extremely poor families: many are one-parent families, and several children have numerous siblings. Their parents and guardians are thrilled to know their children are given a chance to spend sometime in a healthy environment and are grateful for the help we offer them.Our vision is to offer recuperative holidays to disadvantaged children from different countries around the world and to mix children from different countries, races and religions.

Crete For Life - P.O. Box 64 - Ierapetra 72200 - Crete, Greece

Olimpia Theodoli + 30 6947 063926

Maria Spiridakis +30 6976 983180

We keep our running costs, including fundraising costs, to an absolute minimun so that we can concentrate all our resources where it makes a difference

Since 2005, Crete For Life is a charity committed to children in need, working from Crete, Greece